Paint applicator



Aug 19, 1969 F. J. POMARES PAINT APPLICATOR Filed May 1. 1 967 I N VEN TOR.

FRANCIS J. POMARES his a /.i K K ArroR/v s I.

United States Patent 3,462,231 PAINT APPLICATOR Francis J. Pomares, 124 Russell St, White Plains, NY. 10606 Filed May 1, 1967, Ser. No. 635,142 Int. Cl. B431; /02

U.S. Cl. 401-176 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In the particular embodiment of the invention disclosed herein, a hand-held paint container includes a finger-operated pump to transfer paint from the container through a flexible tube to a specially formed brush tip. In the tip, the paint is delivered through a duct to the bristles of the brush adjacent to their free end. A bypass within the container returns a controllable proportion of the paint from the conduit to assure a uniform flow to the tip under all conditions.

Background of the invention This invention relates to paint applicators for window sashes, trim and the like and, more particularly, to a new and improved paint applicator providing more uniform paint flow and easier application than has been possible heretofore.

In order to utilize paint applicators properly, it is essential to provide a uniform and readily controllable rate of flow from the paint reservoir to the brush tip under all conditions. For work to which paint can be applied rapidly, the flow rate must be high but uniform and, for work to which the paint must be applied more slowly, the flow rate must be lower but equally uniform. Moreover, the rate of paint flow must be maintained at a desired level, whether the paint is thick and viscous or thin and tending to drip easily.

Heretofore, paint applicators have been provided with an adjustable control valve interposed in the supply conduit between the reservoir and the applicator tip so as to choke off the flow of paint in varying degrees to produce a desired flow rate. It is extremely difficult to control flow rates with such valves, however, because adjustment of the valve varies the required manual pumping elfort. Furthermore, previous brush arrangements to which paint has been delivered from a reservoir through an internal conduit have been either incapable of accommodating both high and low paint flow rates without dripping or ineffective to confine the application of paint to a desired area uniformly.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved paint applicator which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art.

Another object of the invention is to provide a paint applicator or the above character which delivers paint at easily controllable flow rates, whether at a high level or at a low level.

A further object of the invention is to provide a paint applicator capable of applying paint smoothly and uniformly at high and low flow rates without dripping.

Summary of the invention These and other objects of the invention are attained by providing a paint applicator having a hand-held reservoir and a conduit through which paint is pumped from ice of bristles confined by a clamping device adjacent to the free end thereof and an arrangement for delivering paint from the conduit to the exterior of the array of bristles adjacent to the free end. Preferably, the tip includes a relatively rigid edge guide adjacent to the bristle array and, in addition, the free end of the bristle array as well as the nearest edge of the clamping device may be contoured to conform to the contour of an object to which paint is to be applied. Moreover, for certain applications, the arrangement for delivering paint to the exterior of the bristle array is shaped to retain a quantity of the paint adjacent to the bristles.

Brief description of the drawing In the accompanying drawing:

FIG. 1 is a side view partly in section illustrating a representative paint applicator according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3 is a side view of an alternative form of brush tip for use in the paint applicator; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating another form of brush tip for use in the paint applicator.

Description of the preferred embodiments In the representative embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 1, a cylindrical metal paint can 10, small enough to be held in the hand, is provided with a screw cap 11. Within the can, a conduit 12, passing through and rigidly attached to the cap 11 by a weld 13, carries a conventional pump arrangement 14 at its lower end. In this regard, the conduit 12 has an enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 15 at the lower end and a sleeve 16 fitting closely about the portion 15 has an aperture 17 at its lower end and contains an internal ball 18 urged toward the aperture by a spring 19. Consequently, as the sleeve moves downwardly on the enlargement 15, the ball 18 is raised by the pressure differential to admit paint to the interior of the sleeve and as the sleeve is raised, the ball 18 is held in place by the pressure differential to force the paint through a passage 20 in the enlargement 15 and into the conduit 12.

To operate the pump 14 in this manner, a pin 21 extends vertically from a projection 22 at the upper end of the sleeve 16 through an opening in the cover 11 of the can, a compression spring 24 being mounted on the pin to engage the projection 22 and the inside of the cover 11. Above the cover, the pin 21 extends through a hole 25 in the end of a pump handle 26 and a cross pin 27 retains the handle on the end of the pin 24. The handle 26 is formed with a fulcrum projection 28 engaging the cover surface so that motion of a finger grip portion 29 toward the side of the can 10 raises the pin 21 to produce the pumping action.

In order to regulate the flow of paint through the conduit 12 without influencing the pumping action to any appreciable extent, an adjustable bypass arrangement 30 is provided in accordance with the invention. For this purpose, an opening 31 is formed in the side of the conduit 12 and a deflecting plate 32 is slidable in a laterally projecting plate guide 33 ailixed to the side of the conduit. As best seen in the enlarged fragmentary view of FIG. 2, the deflecting plate 32 has a width approximately equal to the internal diameter of the conduit '12 and the inner end 34 of the plate has a semi-circular shape so as to complement the shape of the inside wall of the conduit. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, the end 34 is bent downwardly toward the pump 14 and is curved so as to divert a proportion of the stream in the conduit out of the lower portion of the opening 31. The bottom of the plate 32 is formed with a recess 36 to accommodate the diverted paint and the bottom of the guide 33 has an opening 37 to direct the paint back to the interior of the can 10. The plate 32 is keyed against rotation Within the guide 33, preferably by making the plate and the guide of rectangular cross section.

Lateral adjustment of the position of the deflecting plate 32 to vary the proportion of the paint flow diverted is accomplished by rotating a shaft 40 supported in a vertical guide 41 aifixed to the cover 11 of the can. A disk 42, attached to the lower end of the shaft, carries an eccentric downwardly projecting pin 43 which is receivable in a transverse slot 43a at the end of the deflecting plate 32. Accordingly, by rotating a handle 44, which is at the end of the shaft above the cover 11, the end 34 of the deflecting plate may be moved toward or away from the inner wall of the conduit 12 so as to deflect a greater or smaller proportion of the' paint delivered by the pump 14 to the conduit.

Above the cover, the conduit 12, consisting of a rigid metal tube, extends through an opening 47 in the handle 26 and is bent forwardly over the handle. A flexible conduit portion 48, made in the usual manner or a helically wound metal strip, is attached to the conduit 12 by a coupling 49. At its forward end, the flexible conduit portion 48 is joined through a swivel connection 50 and a flexible connecting tube 51, preferably made of plastic material, to a metal duct or tube 52 permanently mounted on a removable brush tip 53.

In accordance with the invention, the brush tip 53 comprises an array of bristles 54 which are laterally confined by a metal clamp 55 closely adjacent to their free ends. The clamp 55 comprises a metal band surrounding the bristles forwardly of their mounting 56 and connected rearwardly thereto by a wall 57, the mounting 56 being the usual arrangement for supporting bristles at the forward end of a brush handle. Alternatively, the mounting itself may be used as the clamp if the bristles are cut very short and the array is confined thereby to a relatively small thickness. The paint duct 52 is attached to the bristle clamp 55 by soldering or brazing and terminates in an open end 58 closely adjacent to the outside of the bristle array so as to deliver paint directly thereto. This arrangement voids any substantial accumulation of paint within the bristle array, which is the cause of dripping and nonuniform application in brushes having long bristles and wherein paint is delivered to the interior of the bristle array.

The typical brush tip 53 is especially adapted for application of paint along the lower edge of a baseboard or the like where the line of separation of a vertical surface to be painted corresponds to the intersection of that surface with a horizontal surface. For this purpose, the duct end 58 is at the upper end of the bristle array and a metal guide 59 is shaped to engage and slide along the horizontal surface. The guide preferably extends laterally 'beyond both sides of the bristle array 54 to provide good support and prevent application of paint to the horizontal surface.

Another form of brush tip 60, shown in FIG. 3 is especially adapted for applying paint along the upper boundary of a vertical surface such as the junction with a ceiling or a molding. For this purpose, the bristle clamp 61 carries a vertical outlet tube 62 mounted along its forward edge and two openings 63 and 64 are provided in the front of the tube near the upper end so as to direct paint to the outer surface of the bristle array 65. A duct 66, adapted for connection to the flexible tube 51, is connected to the tube 62 so as to deliver paint thereto. Also, a metal guide strip 67 extends from the upper end of the clamp 61 forwardly across the upper end of the bristle array and preferably the body of the tip 60 is bent downwardly with respect to the bristle array 65 and the forward end of the guide 67, as shown in FIG. 3, to avoid contact with a horizontal surface such as a ceiling.

For painting irregularly shaped strips such as on winmay be used. In this case, the free end of the bristle array 71 is shaped to conform generally to the molding contour and, in addition, one side of the clamp 72 for the tip is laterally enlarged to provide a forwardly facing surface 73 to retain a small pool of paint against the adjacent outer surface of the bristle array. Paint is delivered to the outer surface of the bristles through openings 74 in the forward face 73 and a conduit or duct 75, adapted for connection to the flexible tube 51 of the applicator, is attached to the enlarged clamp portion to deliver paint thereto.

-'In addition, the array of bristles 71 extends across the top of the enlarged clamp portion 72 and is retained in place thereon by a metal strip 76, the bottom end of the clamp being provided with a metal guide 77 projecting toward the free end of the bristles. With the pool of paint thus confined by the guide 77 and the bristles at the opposite end of the clamp. the brush tip may be used in any position without causing the paint to drip. Moreover, because a pool of paint is thus maintained adjacent to the free end of the bristles, the applicator may be moved more rapidly than the usual brush while applying paint uniformly to the surface to be painted, the guide 77 preventing any paint from being applied to an adjacent surface.

In operation, with the appropriate brush tip attached to the tube 51 and held in place against the surface to be painted, the pump handle projection 29 is operated at a uniform and convenient rate of pumping. At the same time, the brush tip is moved along the surface to be painted as rapidly as is convenient for the user. If paint is delivered to the tip at a rate that is too great for the rate of application, the handle 44 is rotated to adjust the end 34 of the deflecting plate 32 inwardly into the conduit 12, thereby reducing the proportion of paint delivered to the tip without affecting the rate of pump operation. If paint is delivered to the tip too slowly, the handle 44 is turned in the opposite direction to increase the flow rate for the same rate of pump operation.

I claim:

1. In a hand-held paint applicator including a paint container adapted to be held in the hand of the user, a conduit leading from the container to deliver paint therefrom to an applicator tip, and pump means mounted within the container and connected to the conduit within the interior of the container and a handle operable by the fingers of a hand holding the container to pump paint from the container into the conduit, the improvement comprising adjustable bypass means including a member mounted within the container and movable into the flow path in the conduit for diverting a variable proportion of the paint delivered from the pump to the conduit back to the supply within the container.

2. A paint applicator according to claim 1 wherein the bypass means comprises means forming an opening in the conduit, means forming a passage leading from the opening to the interior of the container and movable means for controlling the flow of paint through the passage to regulate the proportion of paint diverted from the conduit.

3. A paint applicator according to claim 1 wherein the bypass means comprises means forming an opening in the conduit within the container, a deflecting plate movable through the opening into the conduit, and adjusting means within the container and having a portion extending to the exterior thereof for moving the deflecting plate through the opening to control the proportion of paint which is diverted from the conduit by the deflecting plate.

4. A paint applicator according to claim 3 wherein the adjusting means comprises a shaft extending perpendicularly to the direction of motion of the deflecting plate to the exterior of the container and includes handle means at the exterior of the container and eccentrically mounted pin means engaging a transverse slot formed in the deflecting plate to transmit motion thereto.

5. A paint applicator according to claim 1 including brush tip means connected to the end of the conduit to receive paint therefrom including an array of bristles having a free end, clamp means for clamping the array of bristles adjacent to the free end and external paint duct means communicating with the conduit and terminating adjacent to the free end of the array of bristles and forwardly of the clamp means to deliver paint directly thereto.

6. For a paint aplicator including a paint container and a conduit through which paint is delivered from the container, a brush tip adapted for connection to the conduit at a location spaced from the container to receive paint therefrom including an array of bristles having a free end, clamp means for clamping the array of bristles adjacent to the free end, and external paint duct means communicating with the conduit and terminating adjacent to the free end of the array of bristles and forwardly of the clamp means to deliver paint directly thereto.

7. A brush tip according to claim 6 including rigid guide means affixed to the clamp means and extending forwardly therefrom adjacent to one end of the array of bristles.

8. A brush tip according to claim 7 wherein the guide means includes a supporting surface extending at an angle to the free end of the bristle array for engagement with a surface perpendicular to the surface to be painted.

9. A brush tip according to claim 6 wherein the array of bristles extends laterally across one end of the clamp means and including retaining strip means fcr holding the bristles against the end of the clamp means.

10. A brush tip according to claim 6 wherein the clamp means is laterally enlarged to provide a laterally extending retaining surface adjacent to the end of the paint duct means to retain a quantity of paint adjacent to the free end of the bristles.

11. A brush tip according to claim 6 wherein the free end of the bristle array is contoured to conform to the contour of the object to be painted.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 532,645 1/1895 Cushing et a1 15-547 688,286 12/1901 Blevney 103-41 1,085,234 1/1914 Allan 15-547 XR 2,432,004 12/1947 Gray 10341 2,500,306 3/1950 Brodsky 15599 3,135,005 -6/ 1964 Karkut 15-547 3,206,789 9/1965 Krauth 15541 FOREIGN PATENTS 419,985 11/1934 Great Britain.

1,189,635 3/1959 France.

WALTER A. SCHEEL, Primary Examiner R. I. SMITH, Assistant Examiner U8. (:1. X.R. 401284 

